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March 2022

Putin’s War: The Next Phase by Amir Taheri

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18336/putin-war-the-next-phase

Most wars are aimed at replacing a status quo regarded as undesirable by one or both adversaries, with a new one acceptable by the winning side and tolerable by the loser.

So far, the European Union and NATO have opted for what amounts to knee-jerk reaction to show that they are doing something without deciding what it is they are actually facing.

Seizing the assets of the oligarchs makes good news copy. But it is doubtful that it will sway Putin away from his adversarial trajectory. In any case, if the oligarchs’ assets were produced by corruption if not actual theft, why did Western democracies welcome them as legitimate “investment”? And, if they were legit to start with, why seize them when the Western legal system excludes guilt by association?

Both the EU and NATO would do well to try and de-couple Putin and the Russian people through information, public diplomacy, and carefully targeted sanctions.

As it heads for its second month, like other wars in history, the war in Ukraine seems to be finding the rhythm and tempo that determines its cruising speed at least for some time.

The NCAA’s Three-Day Swim Farce Is Over, but the Controversy Is Not By Madeleine Kearns

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-ncaas-three-day-swim-farce-is-over-but-the-controversy-is-not/

Atlanta — UPenn swimmer and biological male Lia Thomas finished eighth at the women’s NCAA 100-yard freestyle final tonight, with a time of 48.18 seconds. The winner was UVA’s Gretchen Walsh, at 46.05 seconds. And so concludes the NCAA’s sexist three-day swim farce.

On Thursday, Thomas was awarded the women’s 500-yard freestyle championship. On Friday, Thomas took to the podium again for a joint fifth place in the 200-yard freestyle.

The New York Times and other outlets have framed Thomas’s 500-yard victory as the story of “the first openly transgender woman to win a N.C.A.A. swimming championship.” Really, the story here isn’t about athletes’ identities. The story — or rather, the scandal — is about biological sex.

Nobody objects, for instance, to the participation of Yale swimmer Iszac Henig in the women’s championships. Henig identifies as transgender but – crucially — is biologically female. Henig finished fifth in tonight’s NCAA 100-yard freestyle, with a time of 47.32 seconds.

The same people who would boo Thomas can happily cheer for Henig. How can that be, if their motivation is “transphobia”?

That Henig has been content to swim alongside other biological females also exposes the nonsense argument that it would somehow be a denial of “human rights” to expect Thomas to swim alongside biological males.

What Should Be Done to Fight Inflation? A U.S. Lawmaker (Lisa McClain R-MI) Interviews Two Michigan Economists

https://www.aier.org/article/what-should-be-done-to-fight-inflation-a-u-s-lawmaker-interviews-two-michigan-economists/

The following is a recent discussion between US Congresswoman Lisa C. McClain, Northwood University Economics department chair Dr. Dale C. Matcheck and Dr. Timothy G. Nash, director of the McNair Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship at Northwood University. The conversation centered around recent comments by US Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Jerome Powell, and how the Federal Reserve intends to bring our 40-year high inflation rate down to levels prior to 2021. 

McClain: It’s great to be here with two of my favorite economists, Northwood University’s Dr. Tim Nash, and Dr. Dale Matcheck, to discuss Federal Reserve monetary policy. Dale let’s start with you defining inflation.

Matcheck: Sure, Lisa, it’s great to be here. Inflation is the decline in a country’s currency purchasing power over a sustained period of time. Inflation is reflected in an increase in the average price level of goods, services, and assets. The best-known yardstick to measure US inflation is the Consumer Price Index or CPI.

McClain: Tim, your and John Hantz’s late January inflation piece in The Detroit News underscored why it’s so important to discuss Milton Friedman when determining the cause of inflation and how to battle it. Especially topical, given our current inflation rate is at a 40-year high as measured by the CPI.

$1.5 TRILLION SPENDING BILL PASSED BY U.S. HOUSE LESS THAN 24 HOURS AFTER RELEASE

The bill is 2,700 pages – the length of ten books.

Congress had less than one day to read the bill before they voted. President Biden has already signed off — a $1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill. Magic!

Do we really have a representative republic if our representatives don’t even know what they are voting on?

Here are just a few examples of what was in the bill:
$1 million for a “farm-to-refrigerator training facility” in Pennsylvania
$2 million for George Mason University’s Center for Climate Change
$2.5 million for a museum in Vermont.
$3 million for a fisherman’s coop facility in Guam
These examples represent only four of 4,400 earmarks in the bill!

Earmarks are the ‘currency of corruption in Congress.’ It’s legal bribery to give away member pet projects for votes.

(It took 367 pages alone just to list the earmarks!)

Republicans cheered a 6% increase in defense spending. Democrats cheered a 7% increase in social services and executive administration spending.

And, presto, you — the taxpayer — are paying for all of it.

This week, we launched our investigation on television with the 190 local ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX affiliates of the Sinclair Broadcast Group, a Fortune 500 company.

It’s time to bring the heat, so Congress sees the light!

SIGN OUR PETITION to #READTHEBILL.

Urge Congress to take a 72-hour timeout to #READTHEBILL.

Together, let’s hold our elected officials accountable. Tell Congress to do their job!

It’s not pro-Russian to refuse to join the rush to war By Andrea Widburg

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/03/its_not_prorussian_to_refuse_to_join_the_rush_to_war.html

Let me say what this is not: It is not a post supporting Putin or attacking Ukraine. Nor is it a post attacking Russia and supporting Zelensky. It is, instead, a post about trying to drive the “intellectual speed limit” when the Democrats and RINOS (along with a lot of Republicans) have decided to turn a residential street into the “emotional response equivalent of the Indy 500.” In other words, it’s about approaching with caution the information with which we’re being flooded and the information that should be there…but isn’t.

This is an idea that’s been in my head for several days, but I have to give credit to Sundance, at the Conservative Tree House, for articulating it. The first thing Sundance notes is that the people driving us to do anything to protect the Ukrainian people and their sovereign border aren’t people we should necessarily trust. After all, these are the same people who:

Were fanatically anti-War up until about ten minutes ago;
Were stridently opposed to sovereign borders up until about ten minutes ago;
Falsely insisted that Trump had colluded with Russia and continue to do so even when every bit of hard evidence points to Hillary colluding with Russia;
Insisted in October 2020 that Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinformation, although all the evidence pointed to its being real, a truth the New York Times acknowledges;
Insist that men and women can magically become the opposite sex just because they say so;
Are teaching our children that White people are genetically evil;
Were wrong about every single aspect of COVID, whether we’re speaking about its point of origin, the economy destroying lockdowns, the useless masks, the potentially dangerous vaccines that aren’t really vaccines, the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, and the false necessity of school closures;
Destroyed America’s fossil fuel industry in the name of environmentalism but are now desperately trying to get oil from Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, both of which have fewer environmental protections and must ship that oil at great expense across vast waters.

That’s just the short list of everything Democrats (and NeverTrumpers and RINOS) do or say that makes them unreliable. The most recent problem with them, which Sundance points to, is the fact that 51 “intelligence” experts not only lied about the Hunter Biden laptop but also refuse now to apologize. (And don’t forget that Biden, the one person who knew with certainty that the laptop and its contents were real, blatantly lied to the American people during a debate with Trump when he asserted it was Russian disinformation.)

Hunter Biden: After rigging the elections, the media attempts to rig your mind By Rajan Laad

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/03/hunter_biden_after_rigging_the_elections_the_media_attempts_to_rig_your_mind.html

After more than two years of the mainstream media dismissing and suppressing news about Hunter Biden’s laptop, The New York Times finally conceded that the story was authentic.

Back in October 2020, The New York Post had carried myriad reports on the shady business dealings of Joe Biden and Hunter. The emails, text messages, and financial documents on the laptop proved that Biden, as vice president, used his influence to generate considerable profits for his family.

The laptop also had photos of drug-addled Hunter in flagrante delicto with a prostitute and even messages of Hunter using the n-word.

Following the NY Post reports, prominent personalities on MSNBC, NBC, The Washington Post, The Daily Beast, CNN, and The New York Times worked in unison to discredit the story.

Republicans hold Senate primary candidate debate in Ohio: Democrats win By Thomas Lifson

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/03/republicans_hold_senate_primary_candidate_debate_in_ohio_democrats_win.html

As my colleague Richard Baehr comments, this is a good way to lose what should be a pretty safe Senate seat, currently held by retiring Republican Rob Portman. Jordan Dixon-Hamilton writes in Breitbart:

At Ohio’s Republican Senate debate on Friday evening, chaos broke out when candidates Mike Gibbons and Josh Mandel got into a heated altercation, as J.D. Vance berated the two for conduct unbecoming.

Gibbons and Mandel got into a heated face-to-face altercation after Mandel accused Gibbons of making millions of dollars off of Chinese petroleum stock.

“You filed that with the federal elections committee, you own stock in Chinese petro,” Mandel told Gibbons.

“I personally didn’t buy the stock,” Gibbons replied. “You made millions off of it sir,” Mandel said

“I don’t think I’ve made millions off of anything,” Gibbons said. “I’d love to have made millions off of Chinese petro.”

The altercation increased in intensity after Gibbons claimed that Mandel had never worked in the private sector. “You may not understand this because you’ve never been— You’ve never been in the private sector in your entire life,” Gibbons told Mandel.

“I understand fully,” Mandel said as he stood up to get into Gibbons’s face. “I’ve worked. Two tours in Iraq, don’t tell me I haven’t worked,” Mandel said in reference to his military service.

There were actually 4 candidates for the primary onstage, with J.D. Vance and Jane Timken trailing frontrunners Gibbons and Mandel.  

As Kamala Harris would put it, “C’mon, guys!”  Don’t let your personal ambition overshadow the stakes here. The fate of the Republic is at stake.

Ketanji Brown Jackson: A+ Credentials, D- Judge For Brown, politics trumps the law. Ken Sondik

https://spectator.org/ketanji-brown-jackson-a-credentials-d-judge/

Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett could only wish to have experienced a fraction of the media praise being heaped on Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson.

If anything, it should be the other way around. President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court appointees showed immense legal ability and fidelity to the rule of law before joining the Court.

The politically incorrect truth is that President Joe Biden’s nominee, who is set to face Senate questioning on Monday, is a mediocre judge whose politics trump the law.

Let’s look at two cases Jackson handled as a district court judge, her job for eight years until being elevated to the D.C. Court of Appeals last year. The cases are among the highest-profile to have reached her court. They also involve immigration law, an area I write on.

How Dem officials, the media and Big Tech worked in concert to bury the Hunter Biden story By Kyle Smith

https://nypost.com/2022/03/18/how-big-tech-media-and-dems-killed-the-hunter-biden-story/

Everlasting, undying, soul-rending shame be upon you, Facebook and Twitter and Politico and all the others who covered up, denied and suppressed this newspaper’s true and accurate reporting about Hunter Biden’s laptop in 2020. You should be hurling yourselves at the feet of the American people, begging forgiveness. You should be renting billboards saying, “WE LIED.”

But most importantly, you should be hauled before Congress to answer humiliating questions.

These and other information purveyors owe us — not just this paper, but this country — restitution for what now looks like the most egregious and willful fake-news scam of our time. This paper’s scoops on Hunter Biden’s laptop in 2020 were labeled “Russian misinformation” (Politico), a “hoax” (Steven Brill of “fact-check” site NewsGuard), discredited by “many, many red flags” (NPR) and a “hack and leak” operation that had to be throttled (Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg).

Now that the New York Times finally admits that the Hunter Biden laptop story is true, it’s time for everyone involved in suppressing it to be held to account.